The Pool
by Phineas Redux
Summary: A quiet forest pool, two weary warrior women, and a joyfully sunny morning; if it wasn't for the local wild life, one type winged, the other type all too human—as well as greasy, dirty, and demanding.


' **The Pool** '

by

Phineas Redux

—O—

 **Description:—** A quiet forest pool, two weary warrior women, and a joyfully sunny morning; if it wasn't for the local wild life, one type winged, the other type all too human—as well as greasy, dirty, and dangerous.

 **Disclaimer:—** MCA/Universal/RenPics, or somebody, own all copyrights to everything related to ' _Xena: Warrior Princess_ ' and I have no rights to them, dam' it.

—O—

The clearing was large and extensive of its kind. Surrounded by the encroaching forest larches, oaks and beeches the centre of the glade was taken up by a wide almost circular pool of transparent cold water; the pool being fed from underground springs bringing their cargo straight from the nearby mountains. The water was clear, sharp, and intensely invigorating; especially on such a cloudless hot morning as today. The trees stopped all round within a short distance of the pool; leaving an area of soft springy turf right up to the few stones and boulders immediately skirting the water's edge.

On the far side, lying relaxed on the turf, their heads supported by small moss covered boulders, the only two visible inhabitants of the glade lay in cosy luxury, having just completed a delightful swim across the pool and back. Now the women, resplendent in their unconsidered nudity, were letting the sun warm and dry their gleaming wet bodies. Gabrielle wriggled comfortably, passing a hand through her short blonde locks; while Xena lay with her head towards the water, one knee raised slightly, hands behind her head and eyes closed in peaceful tranquil happiness.

The pool's diameter, or width, was almost a full stadion; so the swimmers had plenty of room to enjoy their frolics in the water. Presently Gabrielle, whose head was supported at a higher angle than her companions, opened her eyes and casually glanced over the rippled sparkling surface to the far side.

"There's a small deer over there, Xena."

"Let it be, I ain't hungry yet."

" _Sweet Aphrodite_ , don't you think of anything but your stomach?" The Amazon was affronted by this purely pragmatical outlook. "It's just beautiful, is all I'm sayin'."

" _Oh_. Yeah, sure."

"Well, they are—" The lithe Amazon warmed to her self-imposed theme. "Deer are beautiful. Wild pigs can be beautiful—"

" _Har-Har-Har_ —"

"They are." The Blonde one sat up leaning on her elbows, unaware this just gave her companion a firmer excuse to focus deep blue eyes on her. "Why, bears are beau—"

"No, they ain't." The great Warrior Princess wasn't going to let this piece of sloppy thinking pass muster without a fight. "Bears is bears, lady; as you'll find out fast enough when y've had more experience o' wild life out in the wild—"

" _Ho-Ho_ , that's rich; who was it saved your ass, less than a month ago, from that rampagin' wild hog back-aways?" Gabrielle snorted contemptuously, shaking her silver locks becomingly the while. "Me, that's who; wonderful what a sai in the right place'll do t'scare off a wild hog. Well, you should know, you saw me do it."

The Dark One subsided into morose mumbles at this. _Should'a had more sense than t'try'n berate Blondie in an argument. What am I thinkin', after all these years, too._

"Think I'll take another short dip; the water's lovely. Comin'?"

"Suppose so."

"Don't sound so happy about it, lady." Gabrielle couldn't repress a quiet snigger as she rose to her feet. "Look, we'll head over t'the other side again; but I'll give you two wagon's-lengths of a start this time. I don't wan'na beat you by so shamefully a long distance as I did last time."

Xena was forming a sound, numbing retort to this piece of self-aggrandisement as she lazily eased round to glance at her companion. But this simple movement put all thought of answering back out of her mind as she watched the young Amazon flexing her arms and legs in the sunlight.

Gabrielle's hair, short barely reaching her neck and falling over her forehead in separate strands to just above her eyebrows, reflected the sun in silver highlights. From where the Princess still lay her petite but robust form showed to advantage. Gabrielle's back was wonderfully muscled, especially her shoulders; a slight sheen of sweat making her skin gleam delicately. As she stood, proud and contented, she looked for all the world exactly like a statue by Praxiteles. Her waist was remarkably narrow, flowing out into hips perfectly formed and not over-wide. Her rounded buttocks, not plump or over-sized, were taut and tear-drop shaped as she raised her arms in the air over her head, giving a feline purr of content which made the hairs on Xena's neck stand up.

The Amazon turned slightly, at this point, so that Xena could see her from the front now. Gabrielle's breasts were, as Xena could never get over admiring, just that single measure larger and more rounded than a spectator might have expected in a woman of her size. Her belly, flat and smooth, showed hard muscle which might have made a gladiator jealous. The smooth curve of her belly from there on down, in a natural plane to its perfect destination, always caught the Princess's enthusiastic attention; she never tiring of this delightful panorama.

Gabrielle's legs, certainly in Xena's deeply considered view, were faultless examples of thir kind. Robust where they joined exquisitely with her smooth flanks; tapering to gorgeous knees, and flowing down with tightly muscled calves to feet which always made Xena wish to lie beside their camp-fire of an evening and rain kisses on them. Yes, altogether a glorious specimen of female beauty.

But this would never do; what was this, something in the Princess's eyes, making her blink to clear her vision. _Hummph_ , this wouldn't do at all.

"Tell ya what, boaster; I'll give ya three wagons—three _six_ -horse wagons. An' I promise not t'beat ya t'the other side by more'n a quarter of a stadion; how's that for playin' fair?"

The blonde Amazon, all this while innocently unaware of the spell she was casting on her confrere, turned to laugh scornfully at this jibe. The sunlight reflecting from her gleaming body in gentle waves, making her look more than ever like the most flawless example of womanhood Xena had ever encountered—which, of course, was merely the simple truth.

" _Har_ , you do just love yourself, don't you." Gabrielle shook her head sadly; it being a chore to look after simple-minded Warrior Princess's sometimes. "Right, let's make this more of a fair race, right? Come on over t'the water's-edge, girl. Yeah, right here; we can dive off this low rock, an' the water's deep here. I'll stand here, an' you stand there. Yeah, that's right— _oh_ , is that a prickly nettle just by your right foot, lover?"

Always one to fall into a trap a six year old girl would have laughed to be caught out in, Xena obediently twisted round, bending to see just what her lover was pointing at. The next moment a splash came from the water, drops of cold liquid showering down on Xena's naked skin. Rising and swiftly turning in one fluid motion she saw her admired opponent already some distance out in the water, making a fine attempt to reach the far side in record time. The Warrior Princess growled low in her throat, as she bent forward for her own dive into the cold depths.

 _What a gal; give a sucker an even break, not her. Dam' but she's good; why'd I always fall for her green-eyed innocence? Dam', this water's cold. Beat me t'the other side, not a chance, Blondie. An' just watch out when I catch ya, gal; I got plans for ya that'll make ya giggle till you cry, gal, see if I don't._

—O—

" _Hmm_ , y'know, I wonder if—"

"No."

"Wha'd'ya mean—no."

"Just, no."

"I ain't said anythin' yet, gal."

"You forget, Princess, I can hear you thinkin'."

" _Huh._ "

"An' the answer's still-no."

"But it's—"

"It's _not_ a fishing-hole; an' you ain't gon'na waste the day fishin'—that's final. Lady."

" _Oh, dam'_."

The blonde beauty was adamant, sure of herself, determined, and not in a submissive mood by a long way-the day being far too good for that sort of thing.

"There may be a trout in this here pool." Gabrielle condescended to air her grievances. "There may be salmon. There may even be a pike. Who knows, perhaps there's a whole colony o'sturgeon—but you ain't goin' after any o'them, not on my watch, dearie. This here gorgeous sunny day is wholly given over t'bathin' in the sun, swimmin' in the water, an' general lazin' around doin' nothin'. Fishin' don't come close, madam; so give it up."

" _Shucks_ ,—spoilsport."

"What was that?"

"What? What?"

"What you just muttered under your breath—I heard it."

"Oh yeah? What did I say then? Come on, tell me—so I can deny it t'your face, blondie."

Even this dreaded word, usually guaranteed to bring out the Harpy in the Amazon, held no power to irritate on this wonderful day. Gabrielle merely smiling patronisingly, as at a spoilt young girl.

"Some, uneducated, people have been known t'call it a sport; I allow." The Amazon's lilting tone languished somewhere between scorn and outright contempt. "But I see fishin' merely as a useful way o'furnishin' a tasty morsel for the mornin' meal, an' nothing else. Spendin' the whole day crouched on a boulder, watching a pole with a bit of string and a hook dangling in the water is an act of madness, my dear Princess; an' nothin'll change my mind, so there."

The ungrateful and clearly delirious Amazon might have gone on to wondrous panoramas of censure and disparagement on this topic; but here something happened to completely distract her attention.

" _Aaaoouch_."

"What? What's the matter?"

"Somethin' dam' well stung me, on my shoulder." Gabrielle put her hand on the offending spot. " _Yeeauch_ , it hurts. _Aaargh_ , another. _Gods_ , Xena, the local wildlife's revoltin', an' attackin' me—do somethin'."

They were lying contentedly, up to this point, on the soft turf by the pool's edge on the further shore from where they had spent the preceding hour. The trees and bushes overhung the shore more closely here, allowing the women to bask in the shadows cast by the leafy branches.

The unhappy Amazon darted to her feet, swinging her arms in some kind of automatic self-defence mode; but to no avail, the local winged insect population, having gotten wind of a very tasty morsel indeed, were dead set on enjoying the unexpected banquet to the full.

"It's only a few flies, Gabs; get a grip."

" _Flies_. Dam' flies?" Gabrielle was now on the verge of panic, as she waved her arms about like a windmill; little, barely visible, flying things seeming to have materialised in their hundreds from who knows where—all with eyes only for her. "They're bees; no, wasps; no, giant horseflies; they're some kind'a winged demons from Tartarus, that's what they are. Xena, _help_ ; their eatin' me alive here."

Xena could indeed see a small colony of flies seemingly clustering round the upper reaches of her lover's body. And as this was a forbidden act, on anybody's or anything's part, the Princess sprang into action. Grabbing the wailing Amazon's arms and pinning them to her sides, Xena dragged her over to the water, released her arms, then gave her a stout push that sent her slight frame flying out several feet before she hit the water and went under—Xena following closely behind.

So once more, though not for good reasons, the women set out for the further shore and safety; the Princess staying close to the Wounded Amazon for comfort's sake.

—O—

" _Oww_."

"Stop squirmin' around. Let me rub these crushed leaves on you; they'll ease the pain."

"It hurts. I must'a been bitten five hundred times." Gabrielle groaned, obviously still in some pain. "I've been bitten all over my poor shoulders, an' my, _er_ , my—"

"Breasts?"

"Yeah, my breasts." Gabrielle was in too much discomfort to worry about the niceties of social etiquette. "My right especially; look at my, _umm_ —"

"Nipple? Yeah, I see; let me just rub it better with this leaf, darlin'."

" _Aaww_ , d'you have t'be so, so _enthusiastic_ about it, woman?"

"Sorry. Any more wounds?"

"Like I said, only around five hundred."

"Nah, there's only about eight or nine really serious bites that I can see." Xena poured cold water on this attempt at self-pity. "These leaves'll do wonders, after a while. They were just some kind'a fly, is all; nothin' big or dangerous, like wasps or whatever."

"Well, they were big enough for me, that's all I can say." Gabrielle was determined not to give up her grumbling easily. "All over my right shoulder; an' my, _er_ ,— _oh_ , OK, my right breast. My poor nipple'll probably swell up till it's as red and big as a strawberry, see if it doesn't."

The Warrior Princess grinned, she being equal to all emergencies.

"No problem there. I'll just kiss an' lick it better with my tongue. D'ya think that'll work, darlin'?"

The Amazon Queen considered this for a few breaths. They were presently in cool shade, sitting with their backs against a mossy boulder, and with no undergrowth nearby hiding outriders of their now absent winged foes.

"Probably, yeah, probably." Gabrielle leaned sideways to place a warning finger on her lover's smiling lips. "Just don't get too enthusiastic, that's all I ask. Remember the last time you, _er_ , the last time you, _umm_ ,—"

"Licked your breast an' nipple in a sex-crazed frenzy? Yeah, doll, would ya believe I do remember that. _Ah_ , happy memories."

"Idiot."

"I promise not t'draw blood this time; what more can an adorin' lover say?"

" _Oh Gods_ , OK, go ahead— _Ooorrwph_."

—O—

"What's that?"

"What? Where? When?"

"Over on the other side o'the pool." Gabrielle had sat up suddenly, leaning forward in intent focus on the distant view. "I saw movement over there, just among the trees by the edge of the pool. Look, over there to your left, just where the pool curves behind this small strand we're on. See?"

Xena put a supportive hand on Gabrielle's sweating flank as she cautiously leaned over to gaze across the intervening stretch of sunlit water. They had just completed a wondrous extended encounter which had left both women sweating, sated, and deeply happy. Now was a time when the last thing they needed was unwanted company. The Princess narrowed her eyes as she peered across to the other side of the wide pool.

" _Gods_ , a whole bunch o'riders. Men; deadbeats, by the look o'them. _Sheesh_ , that's all we need." Xena glanced at her gorgeous naked companion, lifting an enquiring eyebrow. "How are ya at fightin' a bunch o'evil smellin' bastards, in the nude? Feel up t'it?"

" _Huh_ , if you think I'm walkin' all the way round this pond, to face-off that bunch, without a stitch t'my name, y'can think again, Wondrous Princess. Lettin' 'em ogle my everything, at close range, I'll say not. It ain't happenin', sister."

" _Hmm_ , s'good our horses an' equipment are here beside us." Xena was now in warrior mode, making plans on the run. "There's nothin' over there t'let on we're here. Duck down a little, Gabs; so they don't see us inadvertently. If we keep quiet they might just carry on, an' finally leave us in peace."

In the space of time it took Gabrielle's ivory pale flesh to stop sweating and resume its natural soft glow the distant intruders walked around on the edge of the pool, some talking, some poking around in the bushes looking for berries, some kneeling by the water filling several leather water-bottles. For a short period the women held their breath as it appeared the group might be considering setting up camp where they were; but this stage passed when they could be seen finally clambering onto their steeds and heading back into the dense undergrowth and forest trees, the way they had come. In another three breaths they had disappeared, and the pool quietly returned to its natural peaceful tranquility. The women let another substantial interval of time pass slowly, just in case, before they cautiously stood up and went to the edge of the pool again.

"Looks like they've buggered off; thank the Gods."

"Thank Olympus for that." Gabrielle shook her head in relief. "Last thing I needed, a bunch o'spectators, cheerin' on our personal show. Doesn't work for me, lover; doin', _er, It_ , in public. Not my scene."

" _Oh_ , I don't know; don't pan somethin' ya haven't tried yourself, gal."

" _Oh, My Gods_." The Amazon turned to stare at her companion in open-eyed wonder. "D'you know, I believe you have, too. _Gods_."

Finding herself overcome by a curious sensation, which the Warrior Princess firmly refused to categorise as embarrasment, Xena instead fell back on military discipline.

"Come on, lady, the afternoon's rollin' along; if we don't set up camp soon, we'll be caught short in the dark."

" _Hah_ , how long does it usually take us t'set up?" The blonde instantly saw the funny side of this inane statement. "Three short breaths, an' a quick scratch of your bum, an' all's— _Gods_ , that was quick."

—O—

"Stop standin' around talkin' nonsense; these trout I caught earlier are sizzlin' away nicely, now. Can ya get the spices from my black saddlebag?"

"Sure those bozos have quit the area?"

"Yeah, they've gone. Remember, I can smell brigands three parasangs distant, young lady."

"You didn't a clepsydra ago." Gabrielle knew an opportunity when it beckoned. "It was me raised the alarm, if you recall."

" _Oh_ , that was only me givin' ya the chance to show your skill, is all. I knew they were there ages before _you_ spotted 'em."

"Liar. I know when you're tellin' the truth; an' I know when you're lyin' your back teeth out—like now."

"Well, as t'that, I have a cunning plan."

"An' what would that be, warrior? I'm all ears."

"Only that there'r only four small trout frying in this pan, gal." The Warrior Princess looked up, from where she crouched over the small wood fire, to the petite form of the blonde standing over her. "An' I've just made my mind up that, as a strong, tired, warrior who's just saved your innocent ass by her experience an' contempt o'danger; well, I bags three o'these well-cooked silver darlin's. It's only fair, after all."

The ensuing tussle, carried out without regard to quarter or surrender, spread across the campsite in a cloud of dust, dry fallen leaves, and all the other detritus on the forest floor. The outcome, of course, was certain before the engagement took place—the Warrior Princess being ever unable to defeat her agile blonde lover in friendly battle.

"I win. I win. I win—"

Gabrielle sat atop her defeated foe, giggling happily. As both were still fully nude she sat on Xena's belly, legs folded on either side of her supine body, knees close to the Princess's superb breasts—now heaving delightfully with the heat of the contest just over. On the other hand Xena herself was in perfect position to glance up the Amazon's body from belly, to breast, to laughing visage encircled by silver rippling hair.

All thought of their supper having been driven from both women's minds by their close physical combat; and both their magnificent chests still heaving from the fray, there could only be, of course, one outcome.

" _Oh Gods_ , I love you so much, Xena."

"Gabrielle, I will never leave you, you know that."

"I know that, lover."

"Gabrielle, just in passin' as it were, are ya ever gon'na put your clothes back on? I think you've been naked for the whole day. Gettin' t'like it, are ya?"

"Fool, if you think I'm gon'na swan inta the next village, strollin' along in the altogether, you can think again."

" _Oh, phooey_." Then the Princess brightened up, an evil grin on parted lips which Gabrielle was in the act of leaning down to kiss. "But can I dream about it, lover-gal?"

" _Oh_ , I suppose so. _Aaarrh_."

" _Uuummph_. Do that again, what ya just did—I can't believe ya did that, Gabs. Go on do it again—I dare ya. _Oooowhoof_."

" _Hee-Hee_."

 **The End.**

—O—


End file.
